Thursday, April 9, 2015

Is Georgia Southern the next Boise State?

Photo via USA Today.

Could Georgia Southern become the next Boise State? The one-time FCS powerhouse-turned fledgling FBS program took the Sun Conference by storm in its first season, going undefeated in conference play and winning the conference title.

The Eagles didn't do quite as well in out-of-conference play, losing close games against North Carolina State and Georgia Tech, and getting clobbered by Navy. Still, the Eagles played hard and showed that its now-legendary shock-the-world win against Florida in 2013, the team's last year as an FCS program, might not have been a fluke.

Georgia So. still is having growing pains in its second year in the FBS. While power conference programs like West Virginia and Georgia, who have the Eagles scheduled to play at their respective stadiums, Georgia So. athletic director Tom Kleinlein is having a little bit of trouble finding opponents who want to face the Eagles at home in Statesboro, Ga.

"I’ve got a list of teams with openings. And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve emailed ‘em, called ‘em and heard, 'Oh well, we’ve got some things in the works.' That’s funny. I’m talking to Dave Brown at ESPN, who controls scheduling, and he doesn’t have you as having a game scheduled.""I got all the Oklahomas and Clemsons and LSUs I can shake a stick at. It’s that second tier; it’s the Mountain West or C-USA school. I listen to ADs talk about being strapped for money. I say great, let me play you home-and-home. Don't pay us anything, and we'll bring at least 5,000 fans. Nope. They want no part of it."

No word if Boise St. is one of the schools ducking Ga. Southern, but a game between the Eagles and the Broncos team that rewrote the rules for non-power conference schools just has to be destined to happen sometime.